Cabinet committee granted power to seize, manage MB assets

The committee tasked with locating and seizing Muslim Brotherhood assets will now manage them, as well, the government said on Friday.

The Justice Ministry formed the committee, which is headed by Justice Minister Nayer Othman, to identify the banned Islamist organization’s financial activities and holdings, following a court order issued in September 2013 to freeze and confiscate all Brotherhood assets.

In December, the group was designated as a banned terrorist organization.

The Cabinet’s decision will give the committee greater powers, allowing it to take control of and manage any Brotherhood financial resources.

Previously, the committee’s role had been restricted to identifying and locating such assets, and ordering other state entities, like the Central Bank of Egypt and the Egyptian Exchange, to freeze and confiscate them.

Last week, the committee shut down Zad and Seoudi, two supermarket chains owned by leading Brotherhood figure Khairat al-Shater and Saudi Arabian businessman Abdel Rahman al-Seoudi, respectively, reported the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram. Days later the two franchises were reopened under the direct management of the committee.

In May, the committee confiscated the assets of 30 group members, in addition to six media and contracting companies and 12 NGOs purportedly owned by Brotherhood members.

The Cabinet’s declaration also entails forming sub-committees drawing on officials from related ministries and state institutions to manage the confiscated assets. The committee’s head will hold the power to decide on the price of managing the assets accordingly.

A technical committee headed by a judge from the Cessation Court will be tasked with monitoring the work of these sub-committees to avoid any potential financial irregularities, according to the Cabinet statement.

Aisha al-Shater, Khairat al-Shater’s daughter, reported on her Facebook page that following the brief closure of her father’s supermarket chain, on Sunday morning offices and stores owned by Shater were raided by police task forces.

Deposed President Hosni Mubarak had employed the same tactics against her family, Aisha said, claiming that the Mubarak administration had confiscated a chain jointly owned by Shater, Salsabeel and Aboul Feda restaurant.

Although a direct affiliation with the Brotherhood has not been proven, Seoudi’s assets in Egypt have also come under attack before.

In an interview published on the Brotherhood’s official website in 2007, Seoudi’s son Mosaab said that his father had investments worth LE300 million in Egypt, and had no affiliation to the Brotherhood.

But that same year, several of Seoudi’s companies were raided and seized, and he was detained on charges of money laundering and financing the Brotherhood. He was referred to a military court along with several Brotherhood leaders, but was eventually acquitted in 2008.